The Joe Burrow Touchdown Bracket: Day 15

I think my favorite thing about this whole Joe Burrow exercise is getting to relive literally every single touchdown he was responsible for last season. It’s like listening to a band’s entire discography instead of just putting on the greatest hits. There’s deep cuts and a handful of forgotten songs that are better than the singles.

Anyway, today we’ve got the Cigar Region’s 6-11 match up. So far, we haven’t had any upsets. Will that change today? Let’s get to today’s vote.

No. 6: Racey McMath’s 60-yard go route vs. Mississippi State

The context:

The thing that jumps out to me about the Mississippi State game was how long it took LSU to get going. We haven’t had any entries from this game yet in the bracket and I forgot this was a 9-7 game with about five minutes to play in the first half. Miss State quarterback Garrett Shrader was able to scramble into the end zone from 12 yards out to put the Bulldogs on the board and score the game’s lone touchdown to that point.

If LSU was on upset alert, Burrow and the offense promptly got themselves out of trouble 17 seconds later when Burrow found, and I can’t emphasize this part enough, a WIDE. OPEN. Racey McMath. There wasn’t anything special about the route. Nobody from Mississippi State covers McMath who’s just streaking down field; 60 yards later McMath is celebrating a touchdown while the Bulldog secondary is trying to figure out who messed up.

No. 11: Justin Jefferson’s 9-yard fade vs. Georgia Southern

The context:

Joe Burrow connected with Justin Jefferson 111 times last season. No receiver has ever caught more balls in a single season in LSU history. Of those 111 Jefferson catches, 18 resulted in a touchdown. The first of his 18 touchdowns came here, in the first quarter of the first game of the 2019 season.

LSU’s at the 9-yardline in the gun. It’s marched 43 yards over the course of nine plays and has featured a heavy dose of Lanard Fournette. Fournette’s picked up 17 yards on the ground and an extra 16 through the air. The last four plays have all gone to Fournette but on first and goal at the nine, LSU calls on Justin Jefferson. Jefferson is lined up in the slot and he and Terrace Marshall run slants in opposite directions. The route concept and Marshall’s size creates a natural pick freeing Jefferson up from his defender. The Georgia Southern defender never gets his head around, and Jefferson goes up and grabs his first of 18 touchdowns of the 2019 season.